


You Have the Right to Remain Silent

by kokoro



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-17
Updated: 2012-12-17
Packaged: 2017-11-21 08:41:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/595735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kokoro/pseuds/kokoro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If you've ever wondered what happened between the sword-flailing incident at Junes and the events down at the police station, it was probably something like this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Have the Right to Remain Silent

Souji’d been here a week—not even a week, _six days_ —and he was getting arrested. Before he’d left the city for Inaba, his mother told him, “Try not to make any trouble for your uncle. Ryotaro is being very generous by taking care of you for the year, and it would be best for you to remember that. But then again, you’ve never been much of a handful.” They both laughed, Souji assured her that he wouldn’t make a nuisance of himself, and she patted him on the head as if he were still 8 years old and not a whole head taller than her. 

But here he was, six days after his arrival, stuck in handcuffs and getting escorted through Junes by the police. Everyone they passed put their shopping on hold and stared. Souji kept his head down, burning with embarrassment, though he figured Yosuke was probably trying even harder to hide his face. They were walking through his workplace, after all, where every time they turned a corner Yosuke had to worry about his father being there to see him get carted off into the justice system.

They managed to make it out without him spotting them, but it didn’t take a genius to know that he’d find out soon enough, from multiple sources. If the news didn’t come from one of the dozens of Junes employees whose jaws dropped to see the manager’s son in custody, it’d be from one of the nosy housewives who set aside her side dish shopping in order to do a public service. Pubic service as in, informing Mr. Hanamura what a delinquent his son had become.

They were both dead meat: Yosuke whenever his father got his hands on him, possibly through prison bars, and Souji whenever he had to make that phone call to his parents saying “Hey Mom and Dad, Inaba’s great, I’m making new friends and I’ve already gotten arrested. I’m really fitting in!” He didn’t even want to think about what Dojima-san’s face would look like when he had to bail them out. He seemed like a nice enough man, from what Souji could gather, but he didn’t want to disappoint his new guardian _already_ ; he’d barely unpacked his stuff from all those boxes.

He and Yosuke may have both been screwed, but that didn’t mean they shared any solidarity at this moment, however. This was all this Hanamura kid's fault, and it goes without saying that Souji was a little pissed. 

“Get in,” one of the officers barked, opening up the back door of the police car for them. 

“Y-Yes, sir!” Yosuke flinched and practically dove into the backseat. Souji silently followed, settling himself down the best he could with his hands still cuffed behind his back. The officer slammed the door closed, got into the front with his colleague, and turned on the sirens before taking off out of the Junes parking lot. 

He couldn’t believe this was happening. They had too much to take care of for them to meet an obstacle like this. That was definitely Yukiko on the Midnight Channel last night, and they still didn’t know if she was okay or not. Yosuke’d said he’d call Chie up, but he didn’t have a chance to tell Souji what she’d said before he started waving those swords around in the Junes food court.

Souji loudly breathed out through his nose, making it clear to Yosuke that he wasn’t happy about this. Even if the weapons were fake, it was a dumb-ass move to imitate an action movie when they knew cops were trawling all over the place. A little town like this was bound to be paranoid and jumpy at any sign of a crime, and for it to be a murder… It would take forever to explain away this misunderstanding.

Souji pressed his lips into a stern, straight line and turned his head toward Yosuke. He whispered, “You should hope this doesn’t show up on our permanent records. Our parents will kill us both.”

Yosuke winced, knowing how true that statement was. “H-Hey, we’ll be fine! They’ll figure out we weren’t doing anything wrong, they’ll let us go, and then we can all have a big laugh about this.” 

Souji narrowed his eyes, as if to disagree with him. From where he was sitting now with those handcuffs digging into his wrists, he couldn’t see himself thinking this was very funny anytime soon. He maintained a cool silence and looked away again. 

“C’mon, everything’s cool…!” Yosuke’s whisper had some panic in it. He was doubting himself here, and he was clearly terrified of Souji being mad at him on top of that. Souji supposed he could understand why, considering they were now bound together by necessity, and starting this teamwork off on the wrong foot was an awful way to begin. They’d discovered a _TV world_ together, for god’s sake, and now they had Personas that they still had to become better acquainted with. They couldn’t continue on without each other, even if they wanted to.

Not to mention Souji had been up close and personal with Yosuke’s shadow. Even though he’d only known this kid for a few days, he probably knew more about what really makes Yosuke tick than… well, maybe anyone else. They may have just met, but a lot was riding on things working out between them. Of course Yosuke would try to lighten the mood and cheer Souji up, even if he wasn’t feeling so care-free himself.

The more Souji thought about it, the more he felt sort of bad about psyching Yosuke out. Things probably _were_ going to be okay, maybe, and it’s not like Yosuke could have known this would happen. It was still his fault, and that was the most _boneheaded_ move he'd seen in a _long_ time, but Souji decided he wouldn’t hold a grudge. 

Yosuke tried communicating with him again. “Doesn’t your uncle work for the police, anyway? I bet he can get us out of this whole thing, no problem! Ahaha!”

That laugh sounded so forced that Souji couldn’t help but answer, if only to get Yosuke to stop. “Yeah, he does. But who knows if he’s even at the police station right now? He could be out investigating, so we might have to wait a while.” He could have added “behind bars” to the end of that, but he assumed it was already conveyed.

“Oh…” Yosuke stared down at his lap, brow furrowed, probably trying to think of anything else that could be comforting to say. He seemed to be coming up dry. They both listened to the blare of the sirens, trying not the think how they were alerting the sleepy town of Inaba to just how screwed these two high schoolers were. The rumors about what they did to get booked were probably circulating already. 

Souji finally broke the silence as the car was turning the last few corners to the station. “I guess this _is_ going to be an interesting story, isn’t it?”

Yosuke blinked, and then smiled with a relief that looked pretty out of place in the back of a police car. “Yeah, for sure. I bet Chie’ll at least get a kick out of it.”

The vehicle came to a halt and the officers quickly hustled them out, but not before Yosuke could shoot Souji a wink—in the current state they were in, it was the only thing he could offer. Despite the way Souji’s stomach felt sick with dread, the way those sirens would be ringing in his ears all day, and the way the cuffs were starting to chafe, he figured he could spare to shoot one back. They were friends now, after all, and he supposed most friends shared some pretty strange bonding experiences. Between the TV world and now this, they probably had that base covered.


End file.
